CBS Agrees to New Streaming Terms with Affiliate Stations

CBS Corporation has sealed a new wide-ranging agreement with the CBS Affiliate Board to expand CBS’s network-affiliate partnership into the digital arena.

The arrangement addresses affiliates’ continued participation in CBS All Access as well as additional opportunities to participate in OTT platforms, including Hulu and Google’s YouTube TV, with additional revenue possibilities for all. With this new collaborative agreement, affiliated stations are joining with CBS to distribute premium content to new “skinny bundles” reaching viewers coast-to-coast across multiple platforms and screens anytime and anywhere. Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

“Expanding distribution on these new platforms together with our affiliates has been a part of CBS’s long-term digital strategy, and I am very proud we have reached this agreement with our affiliate board,” said Ray Hopkins, the president for television networks distribution at CBS Corporation. “No broadcaster has made preserving the network-affiliate model a core tenet of their strategy like CBS. We look forward to continuing to work in partnership with our affiliates, and as these new forms of distribution continue to grow, including CBS All Access, so will our revenue together.”

“We are pleased we have reached this agreement in partnership with CBS,” said Chris Cornelius, the chairman of the CBS Affiliates Board. “Access to these new and emerging digital distribution platforms gives all CBS affiliates the opportunity to provide viewers with more accessibility to their favorite local programs as well as must-see, hit CBS programming such as the NFL, The Big Bang Theory, NCIS, 60 Minutes and so much more.”